The period leading up to the 1970 passing of hotly-debated Referendum 20 saw many pro- and anti-abortion demonstrations in Washington State. Three years before the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade that abortion was a constitutional right, Ref. 20 established a limited right to seek an abortion, and Washington became one of only a handful of states to permit abortions in the early months of a pregnancy and the only one to enact its reformed law through a vote of the people. Approved by Washington citizens with 56.49% of the vote, Referendum 20 succeeded largely because of a focused message of abortion as a issue instead of solely an issue of women’s choice.

In this image a crowd of demonstrators has gathered outside the United States Courthouse at 1010 Fifth Avenue to protest legislative inaction and urge the passage of an abortion reform bill.

Caption information source: http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/referendum20.htm
Caption information also derived from captions written by Post-Intelligencer staff and attached to the back of the photograph.